Research released by Tealeaf into the competitive online travel market reveals the fickle nature of ebookers, with 9 out of 10 consumers booking their holiday with a different provider each time. And with customer experience only beaten by price when consumers were asked about their priorities for a travel website, the message to brands is clear; overlook any aspect of the online customer experience at your peril, or risk visitors fleeing to competitor websites.

The Tealeaf research, entitled “The ebooker: understanding how travel customers use the web”, drills into a range of insights gained from over 2,000 British consumers, 37% of whom now conduct their holiday research wholly via the web, with a quarter making the final booking online too. When it comes to what cultivates a positive experience, price is unsurprisingly number one (64%), but ease of navigation (44%) and an absence of errors or problems on the site also scored highly (22%).

The organizer of the annual Nguyen Hue Flower Street program has entered the final phase with Nguyen Hue Boulevard closed on January 21 to begin installing 120,000 flowerpots.

The flower street will be opened to visitors on January 31, or the 28th day of the final lunar month, and closed on February 6, or the fourth day of the new lunar year.

Chiem Thanh Long, deputy head of the organizing committee of the Nguyen Hue Flower Street, told the Daily last weekend that the organizer had placed orders for flowers with farmers in HCMC, the Mekong Delta and the Central Highlands city of Dalat.

Visitors will have the opportunity to see around 90 species of flowers along the main street in the city’s commercial district as they ring in the Lunar New Year.

For the first time, Air France’s new-version of the Boeing 777-300ER has gone into service from Vietnam to Paris, France.

The new Boeing 777 took off on January 4 for the first time from Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

The latest version of the Boeing 777-300ER seats up to 383 passengers, in a 3-cabin configuration, which includes 42 seats in business class, 24 seats in the premium Voyageur class and 317 seats in the Voyageur class.

The Vietnam National Administration of Tourism will take part in the Travex’ 2011 in the Cambodian capital city of Phnom Penh from Jan.18-22 to popularize the nation’s tourism, according to the Hanoi Moi daily.

During the five-day event, Vietnam’s tourism sector will introduce the country’s cultural and historical architectures and UNESCO-recognised heritages such as the Ha Long Bay, the Thang Long Imperial Citadel, the Phong Nha – Ke Bang, the Hoi An Ancient City, the Space of Gong Culture in the Central Highlands, the Giong festival.

In framework of the event, posters on beautiful beaches, landscapes and tourism products will be showcased to attract visitors from ASEAN countries and the world.